The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see
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The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see resource for landlubbers and mariners alike.

Carol Gafford is a public librarian, family historian, amateur archivist and book savior. She is currently the youth services/outreach librarian at the Swansea Public Library and volunteers for several museum and historical societies including the Marine Museum at Fall River, the Swansea Historical Society and the Bristol Historical and Preservation society. She is the editor of Past Times, the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists and is always looking for a new project to take on.

Today is a look at the realignment of the league and the changes it will bring to the playoff format.

In a two-year trial format, the NHL has gone from six divisions to four, Winnipeg has moved to the West and Columbus and Detroit have come East. The East is 16 teams deep, the West 14. Playoffs will be intra-division for the first two rounds, like the old Adams Division days.

The Bruins are now in the Atlantic Division with their old Northeast Division partners (Buffalo, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto) and the Sunshine State pair (Florida, Tampa Bay).

The other East division is … the Metropolitan (no truth to the rumor that Batman wouldn't let them call it the Gotham Division). The eight teams in the Metropolitan are Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, Islanders, Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington.

There's a new schedule format as well. The Bruins will play a home-and-home series with every West teams, a total of 30 games. They'll play each Metropolitan team three times, a total of 24 games. That has the odd effect of the Rangers making as many visits to Causeway Street as the Coyotes.

That leaves 28 games in the division. The Bruins get Buffalo and Florida five times each, the others four times.

Now that intra-division playoffs for the first two rounds, that's like the old Adams Division days? Well, it's not quite the same. In those days, the top four teams in the division went into the playoffs and it was that simple.

Now it's a bit more complicated. The top three teams make the postseason, but the fourth seed in each division is a wild card between the two divisions in the conference. In essence, five teams from one division can make the playoffs.

That would've been the case if the format had been in place last season. The wild cards would have gone to Atlantic teams Detroit and Ottawa.

Here's what the standings would have been last season in the 48-game season.

Atlantic Division

1. Montreal (63 points)

2. Boston (62)

3. Toronto (57)

4. Detroit (56)

5. Ottawa (56)

6. Buffalo (48)

7. Tampa Bay (40)

8. Florida (36)

Metropolitan Division

1. Pittsburgh (72 points)

2. Washington (57)

3. New York Rangers (56)

4. Columbus (55)

5. New York Islanders (55)

6. Philadelphia (49)

7. New Jersey (48)

8. Carolina (42)

The two wild cards go to the Red Wings and Senators, one point each ahead of the Blue Jackets and Islanders (the Isles made the playoffs under the old format). By getting the second wild card (via tiebreaker, fewer regulation/overtime wins), the Senators face the top-seeded Penguins in the first round.

So the playoffs would have been:

Atlantic Division

4. Detroit vs. 1. Montreal

3. Toronto vs. 2. Boston

Metropolitan Division

4. Ottawa vs. 1. Pittsburgh

3. New York Rangers vs. 2. Washington

There you go. New schedule, new division, new playoffs. Time for a new season.